TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS

Really, it was probably too much to handle. In all four songs, there are hints of good musical ideas but to me, none of them have been used to their full values. They just thought of something, put it down, and moved on. They could have worked on it and worked on it until they made it beautiful, but with the overwhelming amount of work they had to do to achieve 80+ minutes of music, this just wasn't possible. Their creativity lacks as well. And I do not think Alan White did too well either.

I believe that this album was kind of their scrappy preparation for their masterpiece yet to come, Because I feel that the gates of delerium was a masterpiece, with everything fully worked on, full musical creativity, and an insane amount of emotion. I believe that the four tracks on TfTO were like a practice/preparation. Alan White improved immensely, Jon Anderson made his vocals much more melodic, beautiful, and fitting with the song (as opposed to singing random stuff because they have no idea what else to do). Also, I think Steve Howe kind of took a break in this album, I really did not see too much from him.

In the end, on the big picture I feel that this album is Good, but definitely not essential, I'd consider the whole album like a bonus track.

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